Freeride Becomes Snow Australia’s Newest Discipline
Mountainwatch | Press Release
Following the Freeride World Tour’s merger with FIS in December 2022, Snow Australia has formally included Freeride as a pathway discipline.
The announcement starts a flow of activity which aligns with existing Snow Australia disciplines, including membership, performance pathways and education to ensure athletes have the best possible chances of achieving success.
Taking advantage of existing structures which have already brought much success, Freeride will sit under Park & Pipe in its governance within Snow Australia.
Through this, the first Freeride Emerging Talent Program cohort will be announced soon, naming an initial group of emerging athletes targeted for further progression along the Snow Australia Performance Pathway.
Snow Australia CEO Michael Kennedy said it was an exciting time for an emerging discipline. “Freeriding has always been extremely popular within the Australian snowsports community,” he said. “It’s no surprise then that the sport of Freeride has continued to emerge over the last quarter of a century and has recently become part of the FIS family. It is highly likely the sport will become an Olympic event in the coming cycles and we want to make sure we are setup for that moment.
“We’re very much looking forward to seeing the sport progress in Australia and set the structures in place to strive for success.”
Michaela Davis-Meehan is one athlete already making waves in the world of Freeride. She is once again on the Freeride World Tour in 2025 after receiving a season wildcard, having navigated the cutthroat competition in FWT Challenger and FWT Qualifiers. Fellow snowboarder Briony Johnson and skier Zanna Farrell have both also started to show their talent to the world in Challenger and Qualifier events.
Australian athletes have enjoyed some big results in the junior divisions with 16-year-old Hotham skier Finn Jacobsen finishing equal first in the men’s ski under 18s on the 2024 Europe/Oceania tour while Jasper Rogers was fourth overall on the America’s men’s ski under 15s. In snowboarding, Australia’s Vaughn Hardwick is regarded as one of the world’s best up and comers after a successful junior career that included winning the Oceania tour in 2023 after finishing in third place in 2022. He also placed second in the 2023 Junior World Champs.
At home, Australia hosted its first Freeride World Tour event in August at and will be looking to make this a regular occurrence on the calendar. The 2024 Mount Hotham Freeride World Tour Jnr 1* & Qualifier* events saw around 200 participants across the competitions, while Thredbo’s popular Battle on the Bluff also showed the strong level of community engagement with the discipline.
Stay tuned to Snow Australia channels for more information about Freeride initiatives.
